A Kenyan runner who is an All-American at an Alaska university has had both feet amputated after suffering severe frostbite during a two-day disappearance earlier this month, the Anchorage Daily News reports.
Marko Cheseto, 28, lost both feet above the ankle, according to a statement from the University of Alaska-Anchorage, the newspaper says.
"As some may know, I've been going through a lot of personal issues," Cheseto said in a statement. "While I am still recovering -- both physically and emotionally -- I will do my very best to give back to the community that has helped me so much and to my home country, Kenya. I sincerely apologize for any problems that I might have caused."
Cheseto apparently was outdoors during the entire time he was missing, according to UAA athletic director Steve Cobb, and may have been unconscious.
University police say his disappearance was a result of a "personal crisis," the newspaper reports.
The six-time NCAA Division II All-American was wearing jeans, running shoes and a light jacket when he disappeared, and had no cellphone. It snowed more than a foot while he was missing, the paper says.
After Cheseto was founded wandering outside a hotel near the university, paramedics were unable to remove his shoes because they were frozen to his feet, the Daily News says.
http://content.usatoday.com/communit...1?csp=obinsite